Many people – including this writer – use words that are inaccurate, have multiple meanings, are outdated, and have been rendered meaningless by misuse and time. Therefore clarity in our personal thoughts and group discussions are significantly compromised or rendered impossible. Our understanding of words often reflects our economic, social, economic, political, religious, ethical, moral, national, environmental and sexual backgrounds – and our use of words reveals our biases – pro or con – towards other people.
I think that “moderation” and its related words of “Moderate” and “moderating” have generally meant some fundamental concepts of balance, civility, open-mindedness, ethics, educated compromise, reasonableness, kindness, and a general avoidance of extremes in thoughts, beliefs and actions. It does not include being wishy-washy, cruel, thoughtless, disinterested, uneducated, unprincipled, reckless, or intransigent.
The ancient Greek philosophers considered that balance and moderation in all aspects of life was a goal worthy of pursuing by all human beings – even though it might be very difficult to attain by highly irrational, emotional, ignorant, zealous, competitive and imperfect people.
Our public discourse – and what we see/hear thrown about by the 24/7 news/info entertainment media cartel in the US and most other countries – has degenerated into a perpetual effort to distract, confuse, obfuscate, manipulate, entertain and insult our fellow human beings. Kindness is completely lacking in many of our social interactions – even though a strong majority of people are kind, helpful, patient, tolerant, open-minded, ethical and moral. We have let a small group of controlling, fanatical, nasty, greedy, and close-minded sociopaths and psychopaths to dominate society’s power structures and many avenues of public debate.
Here’s a sample of words that have so many different meanings to various groups of people that they have been rendered meaningless when used in most of our discussions: Democracy, Republic, Independent, Monarchist, Liberal, neo-liberalism, progressive, conservative, radicalism, extreme/extremism, fascist/fascism, communist/communism, socialist/socialism, totalitarianism, Nazi, Marxism, Keynesism, Monetarism, elites/elitism, oligarchy, kleptocracy, plutocracy, theocracy, corporatism, capitalism, materialism, free markets, crony cartels, monopoly, oligopoly, entitlements, subsidies, welfare, lazy, work, choice, freedom, entrepreneurs, makers/takers, moochers, wealthy, poor, middle-class, security, privacy, intelligence, stupidity, and so forth. Each word encompasses too much from history and recent misuse, and depending upon the speaker or circumstances, they are positive or pejorative, and are used to praise or criticize.
I’m not saying we should stop using these words – but we need some objective agreement on what each one means. If we cannot agree on even basic meanings, then using them is pointless. Perhaps we need new words to describe most people, situations and systems of today. For instance, what was written in the original US Constitution as Amended through the end of the 19th Century probably does not function as originally contemplated in the 21st Century – and it probably shouldn’t. The economic system our politicians and influential people have created for the U.S. is certainly not purely capitalism, socialism, or even a free market as described by Adam Smith and other economists of the past.
So many people today talk past each other; listen to others with closed or distracted minds; are obstinate and stubborn; refuse to face facts or accept constructive criticism; live in delusional worlds instead of facing cognitive dissonance; rationalize their ideas and actions and demonize those of their perceived opponents; engage in false projections of their thoughts, faults and behaviors onto other people very different from themselves; generalize from very limited and often false anecdotes; pontificate from positions of near ignorance, anger, bias and bigotry; prefer inflicting pain instead of magnanimity on others; believe in the innate superiority or inferiority of different people; and retreat to empty dogmatism, tribalism and group-think. This naturally leads to endless extreme partisanship, intransigence, gridlock and paralysis in all our major social, political and economic institutions.
For those who support the status quo because they (have – continue to – and will) profit enormously from it, this is the perfect society – even though it only functions well for about 10% of the total population. There has to more to the human condition, our history and what makes us human beings, than just money, power, and control. What about the many other attributes and pursuits of the majority of people? Are we just creatures that serve our most base, demonic, cruel, satanic, selfish, and short-sighted instincts? Should we listen to or even follow those who advocate such empty goals for humanity?
Some readers may consider this post complete bullshit at best, pathetically wrong and angry for having wasted any time reading it. I consider it an anguished cry for sanity and kindness between reasonable people – who far outnumber those in power, control and wealth today.
How can this depressing dynamic be changed? Do we need more education of a critical number of people to challenge the status quo? How does one resist or change pervasive intolerance, stupidity, anger, cruelty, and intransigence on the part of a small, controlling, ruling class? Humanity has faced similar challenges in the past but most often there were far fewer people involved and in more isolated locations. Today, these are global issues with more than 7 billion people on a very finite world.
I welcome the input of TMV readers. These questions have been a major impediment to frequent posting by this writer for several months. I fear that I am giving up on humanity. I feel that writing any of my thought is a waste of time.
I need to go take a walk outside in the very sunny and warm weather than generally persists in Phoenix, Arizona. At least this post is less than 1,000 words. Shouldn’t our fearless leader Joe G give me some sort of award for brevity?
Respectfully submitted by Marc Pascal. You can reach me at [email protected]. Here is a list of my favorite blogs, including aggregators and those that concentrate on Modern Monetary Theory (MMT)***:
BILLY BLOG*** by Bill Mitchell (http://bilbo.economicoutlook.net/blog)
BUSINESS INSIDER (http://www.businessinsider.com)
FABIUS MAXIMUS, Chet Richards, Editor (http://fabiusmaximus.com)
GOLEM XIV by David Malone (http://www.golemxiv.co.uk)
HISTORY UNFOLDING by David Kaiser (http://historyunfolding.blogspot.com)
IAN WELSH (http://www.ianwelsh.net/)
Jesse’s Café Américain – (http://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com)
KUNSTLER by James Howard Kunstler, formerly blogging under the name “Clusterf*ck Nation” (http://kunstler.com)
MICHAEL HUDSON*** (http://michael-hudson.com)
MODERN MONEY MECHANICS*** – MMT Simplified by Senexx (http://modernmoney.wordpress.com)
MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY*** by Rodger Malcolm Mitchell (http://mythfighter.com)
MOSLER ECONOMICS*** is written by Warren Mosler (http://moslereconomics.com)
NAKED CAPITALISM*** written & edited by Yves Smith & Lambert Strether (http://www.nakedcapitalism.com)
NEW ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVES*** (http://neweconomicperspectives.org)
OF TWO MINDS by Charles Hugh Smith (http://www.oftwominds.com/blog.html)
PRAGMATIC CAPITALISM by Cullen Roche (http://pragcap.com)
SCIENCE MAGAZINE (http://www.sciencemag.org)
SHADOW GOVERNMENT STATISTICS by John Williams (http://www.shadowstats.com)
THE ARCHDRUID REPORT by John Michael Greer (http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.com)
SOME ASSEMBLY REQUIRED by Charles Kinsley Michaelson, III (http://ckm3.blogspot.com)
THE BURNING PLATFORM by Jim Quinn (http://www.theburningplatform.com)
THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE by Michael Snyder (http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com)
THE HIPCRIME VOCAB *** (http://hipcrime.blogspot.com)
THE TRANSPORT POLITIC By Yonah Freemark (http://www.thetransportpolitic.com
THE WEB OF DEBT BLOG by Ellen Brown http://ellenbrown.com/
WASHINGTON’S BLOG – (http://www.washingtonsblog.com)
ZERO HEDGE edited by Tyler Durdin (http://www.zerohedge.com)